H.E. Mr. Boris Velic

ANA: Asia News Agency would like to welcome you to India. You have taken over as Ambassador of your country in India very recently. What has been your experience so far and how far you are able to adjust to the new environment?

H.E.: India is not new to me. I have been visiting your great country for the last 25 years in different capacities, if not on a diplomatic assignment. I was in India while working for the World Bank and again as an investment banker. I enjoyed my stay then and am enjoying it now. I have witnessed great changes here since my last visit. India has progressed tremendously and has emerged as a strong economy with phenomenal growth. India has emerged as leader in the IT industry. A large middle income class has emerged with investable income. Foreign companies are outsourcing their jobs to India. India stands in the same league with the top most economies in the developing countries. This encourages Croatia to look for further expansion and deepening of economic ties with India in many fields on a reciprocal basis.

ANA: In spite of being on friendly terms, India and Croatia do not have very strong economic and trade ties. What are your priorities on expanding trade relations?

H.E.: My first priority, in addition to building up on our friendly and strong political relations, is to expand economic ties. Despite differences in size of the economies of Croatia and India, a great potential exists for expanding trade and commerce. I would like to cash in on my previous experience to identity areas of cooperation in which the two countries can focus. For this, I propose to work on a plan to bring the business leaders and captains of industry from the two countries on a common platform to discuss business promotion, joint ventures and commerce. There are many areas which offer a huge scope for expanding trade, commerce and investment. Companies and trade bodies of the two countries need to be brought together to discuss and identify the areas which offer scope for doing business. Both sides agree that there is much to be done. I believe lack of information about the each other’s potential and achievements is one of the reasons that the trade ties have not achieved a desired result. There are many areas where the two countries can do business to their mutual advantage. For instance: infrastructure, power generation and transmission, and ship building are some of the areas where Croatia companies have experience. At the same time, as India has emerged as world leader in IT industry, Croatia can learn from India in this field like some other countries. Recently held Indo-Croatian Joint Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation in March of this year, reconfirmed the need for further strengthening of economic ties between our two countries. Croatia also offers a great scope for Indian shipping industry to use the Croatian ports in the Adriatic Sea for their trans- Atlantic trade. Croatian ports can be used as warehouse for Indian companies doing business with Europe. It should also be noted that Croatia can be reached by air from any point in Europe within a maximum of two hours flight.